Day 102

What a magnificent day!!!

I got my one wish so far: for Colin to see me ride Harry! My mom worked Harry first while I was working with Brie and my brother worked with Nina. Brie really wanted to walk, Whig was a surprise, and so we walked while mom worked. We were just finishing up our rounds of corto and largo when my mom asked if I was ready to ride Harry.

Boy was he phenomenal! We started out walking and I was working with reverses because he still doesn't like to give to the right side. We picked up a fino and went across the board: it was the tightest and loudest he's ever been! I could feel his joy as I rode and all I thought was "wow, I wish Colin comes back and can see" and no less than 10 minutes later he's back! We said hi and I took the board and it gave me so much gratification to know that Colin, Ray, and a new trainer were watching as I tore up that sound board. I only wish I had a camera so I could show you guys!

So after that they all left and I hopped back on Brie and we worked up to our canter. We're working in a large circle around the pole before I ask her to take the entire arena. I also want to get her to slow her canter down a little bit, because she will only go right into a largo if I ask her to slow down a little. Overall, I'm really pleased with our progress.

My progress, however, could use a lot of work. I didn't realize how little I knew about riding hunt seat and it drives both me and my mom insane. I have to really work on my form rather than worrying about teaching Brie because she will jump over anything! We went from a little X to a 1.5 ft today and she just took it perfectly. The only thing that looked ugly was my form! It's so frustrating! I'll just have to keep working on it. We also have to order boots for her, hopefully for Christmas when we order all of them leather name plate halters.

Nina? Well, hopefully I'll be getting to know her and work with her over the winter. I'm not even concerned with training Nina because my mom and brother have done a fantastic job. I just need to learn how to ride her.

I'm so happy with how this weekend went. It's been such a stress reliever, it's all that I needed after everything I've had to put up with since school started. I can't wait until next weekend! The farrier is supposed to be out on Friday.

Happy Halloween!!

Day 101

Just to think, I gave up a month of this for something that wouldn't even last, but I'll get to that.

This sure was an interesting return.
I'll start with the weird stuff first. So Ray rode Harry today...yeah, that's what I said. Crazy, isn't it? My mom was having a bit of trouble with Harry lunging, since she wanted to start him out today, and Ray offered to help lunge him, so she let him. After lunging Harry for a long time and after Harry was sufficiently worked up, Ray asked if he could ride, so my mom agreed. Good news is, as far as I can tell, he didn't screw Harry up--he was still fino-ing across the board. The entire thing was just really strange though. I want to start Harry tomorrow.

I rode Brie for a really long time today! We walked and corto'd and largo'd and went outside in the trail and worked on cantering...she even jumped! Her cantering is getting really good: I'm getting to the point where I don't even have to squeeze, just shift my legs and she picks up the right lead. It's a little harder to the left, but we'll get there. As soon as she has the basic signals down pat, I want to work on flying lead changes.

We jumped a tiny X set up out of wood and traffic cones. She over shot it a couple of times, and my position needs work, but I'm so excited! I'm going to ask my Grandpa to make a set of jumps for me for christmas. I need to learn hunt seat, since all I learned on the team was equitation.

Speaking of the team: I quit. Yeah. I'm not too bummed about it. I'll miss the girls in my lesson the most, but it just became this big political power trip for the exec board, plus I wasn't too pleased with where we were at. No skin off my back, now I have $40 extra to put towards a car every week =] so I can go see my own horses.
I'm really excited to keep jumping Brie though. My mom was an amazing hunter jumper in her day, so she'll give me lessons on position and everything.

I don't know when I'll find time to ride Nina though! My dads shift is changing at work so now we'll have to leave really early on Saturdays. =\ this also means that if I want to stay on a Friday at school, I definitely won't be going out to the barn on Saturdays. I'll have to choose wisely.

Two weeks til the Iowa game, three weeks til the Wrigley game, and four weeks until normalcy.

Day 100!

I thought that Day 100 would be more exciting and milestone-ish than today really was.

So after a very long time of not going out to the stable because of team stuff, I finally made it out today. I rode Brie a lot and worked Harry a little and cuddled Nina. My mom mostly worked Harry, she's taken him over. We had an issue with him getting freaked out at a flag today while I was riding him, so once he calmed down, I got off. It was my first weekend back and I didn't want to push anything too much, and he did what I wanted him to do so I figured it was best to end on that note.

Brie hasn't been worked in a while, so she was sweating really badly after I rode her a couple of minutes! Little Miss Out of Shape! We corto'd around inside and out and then, after I rode Harry, I got back on her and asked my mom to hold the pisador that way I could teach her how to canter on command some more. She does it really well on the left but not so well on the right. I guess all horses are like that though. She did a pretty good job! I'm really proud of her and I can't wait until we get it a little bit more down pat and can start doing flying lead changes!

All of them are starting to get their winter coats. They're so fuzzy and cute! I wonder if horses can eat candy corn...I want to bring them a treat for Halloween next Sunday!

Northwestern IHSA Show

So yesterday I was super excited for our home show. I figured I had it in the bag because I know all of the horses. I had three horses that I wanted to draw: Mr. Bubbles, Dutchess, or Cameo.

I got Mr. Bubbles! I was so confident (overly confident...) that I would win my class simply because he was a know-it-all, push-button horse. I let myself get over confident and ended up getting 6th place...the only good thing about that is that I at least beat a couple other people.
One girl on the team says that it's not about winning ribbons and that it's about having fun. I have to disagree. I mean, I'm still in it to have a good ride, but I'm especially looking to win ribbons. I guess that the "not winning ribbons" attitude only happens when you win (or maybe lose) all the time, and since I'm almost always stuck in the middle around 4th or 5th place,  I really like winning those blue ribbons.

Basically, what went wrong was that I got a little too close to the judge and picked up the wrong lead. I couldn't even tell...my mom keeps telling me that I need to stay on the rail too, but everyone on the team says "Oh, no, stay in the middle or on the quarter line, it'll attract the judge's attention." I did that yesterday and got 6th. I stayed on the rail on Saturday and got 1st. I think I'll go with my mom's judgment from now on, she was show jumping for longer than those girls were alive...She made a good point though: when you amble around in the middle you look like you have no idea what you're doing.

I have a question for all you English discipline people out there: How tight of a reverse do you do? In Paso shows, our reverse has to be super tight because the horse is supposed to be very flexible and supple at the pole. Nell's been telling me that I'm hurting her horses by reversing tight and that if I want to reverse, I'm supposed to reverse across the middle of the arena...I highly disagree with her, especially after yesterday when I reversed across the arena and every one else reversed on the rail. I'm not too pleased, to say the least.

Anyways. I was thinking of just working on the flat for my lessons, but I figured since Brie's not going to be shown too much because we only have a 2 horse trailer and 2 younger horses, I'll continue teaching her how to canter and what not and practice lead changes with her and keep using my $40 a week on working on jumping. I can't wait to go to the barn this weekend and return to some sense of a normal training regimen once football season's over.

Augustana IHSA Show

I guess all that hard work with Jimmy has paid off. Know why?

BECAUSE I WON FIRST PLACE!

Yes! I've finally won first place in the IHSA circuit! Granted, I've only been to one other show to win a first place at, but I'm so excited that I won today! And I'm even more excited for tomorrow because it's at our home barn and I know the horses. I have three in mind that I'd love to get: Mr. Bubbles (love), Dutchess (super fun) or Cameo (pretty much my twin). It'd also be cool if I got Jimmy. I feel like I owe him a good exhibition since he's helped me gain strength in my leg so I was able to win today!

The horse I rode, Trinny, was written up as "LOTS OF LEG. Crop: Yes. Spurs: Yes (over fences)" so naturally when I saw I had him and the other girl in my division had someone who's description when something like this "LIGHT LEG. Crop: No. Spurs: Definitely not" I was a little worried. But I got in the mindset of something between "Brie just stopped in the middle of the ring again. Hell no." and "Come ON JIMMY MOVE!" and did fantastically. I got a trot and a canter fairly quickly and on the right leads too! Admittedly, I did break stride from a canter into a trot right before the judge called for a walk, but she obviously didn't see me. I did get my diagonal wrong once, though, but I recognized it and corrected it just as one of my team mates yelled at me to fix it from the sidelines (discretely of course). 

And I have a confession. While I heard the numbers being called as I walked out of the arena, all I was expecting was 4th place and when my other team mate in the class got called 4th, all I could think of is that I missed my number and was called 5th OR maybe I was excused but as the judge got to 2nd place and it hit me that I could possibly be pinned 1st, I jumped up in the air super high as she called "And first place goes to rider 116, Alexa from Northwestern University! Congratulations!" I can't even explain to you the feeling of joy I felt inside when I heard that and I hugged the first person I could recognize. 

Not to mention that I got some prizes =] I got a gift certificate to a tack shop, shoe polish, and a packet of Mrs. Pasture's horse cookies, three, just enough for Harry, Brie, and Nina. 

I can only go into tomorrow with extra positive energy. I'm so thankful for today.

Equestrian Team Day 16

Ugh. I got stuck with Jimmy again.
But we did make progress. I pretty much got him to canter within 10 strides. Not perfect, but an improvement from last week where he wouldn't canter at all on the right track around the arena.

One thing that really bugs me, though, is that while NU has a lesson going on, there's another girl with the other instructor in the ring getting a semi-private with our group. Not cool. Especially when we have to watch out for her while we're all doing one thing and her instructor is telling her to do another.

And the thing that bothers me the most about a horse is when he yanks his head forward and pulls you. It's my pet peeve.

So my last IHSA show for 2010 is this weekend. It really bums me out that we only have four shows a year. It kind of really sucks unless you place high and get points. My goal for this weekend is to place at least 4th. I will not take any crap from these school horses simply because as school horses, they shouldn't give you any.

As much as I'll want to continue showing, I can't wait to get back to jumping. I've been working on the flat for the past month because I wanted to improve my chances for placing at these shows.

Oh and one more thing: I relearned diagonals again! It's so hard to get used to them, especially after coming from Pasos who don't trot. Wish me luck this weekend!

Day 99

I didn't really get to ride Harry today =[ my mom and Paco rode him. He doesn't want to flex his head to the right or really walk for them, so they worked on it. It wasn't even worth me to work with him because, until football season is over, weekends are irregular. Like next weekend, I'm going to a school horse show again. Hopefully I do better this time. Gary said he'd try to make it out to come and watch me. Part of me hopes he doesn't because I don't want him to think less of me because of the quality of the school's barn compared to the beauty of his.

I did get to ride Brie a lot today! That made me really happy. She's had a two week break because everyone's been focused on Harry. She was actually pretty good today. I didn't want to do too much because she hasn't been exercised in a while. We walked around in the round pen with Harry and then when we went inside, she wanted to largo so I let her largo her little heart out and stretch her legs. Then I took all of her tack off except for a bithanger and we ride bareback. It was hard, but ultimately good for my balance and her just to change it up a bit.

I can't even imagine what it would be like if I went away to school in another state and had to leave them behind. Even Nina. It makes me so sad that I never get to ride her, especially because I actually partially own her. But we went for a stroll on a lead rope and I let her eat grass. I wish I had my own car, that way I could drive out on Thursdays when I don't have class, or even Tuesdays after my one class of the day.
Maybe I'll start working Tuesdays. I'll pick up a little extra money every paycheck. I'm pretty sure I'll still need Thursdays to catch up on Wednesday night's homework I miss because of the lesson.

I need a car.

Secretariat

So I didn't train today, but I did do something horse related that I really was excited about.

I went to see the new Secretariat movie!

It was fantastic. It was mostly about the woman, Penny Tweedy, who owned him and how she defied the typical housewife stereotype by going with her instincts, from which foal to keep to how to train him for the final leg of the Triple Crown. I actually cried while watching the Belmont Stakes scene of the movie, not out of sadness, but out of sheer amazement that an animal, an earthly creature, was able to run that fast, was that powerful.

My mom got to witness that on TV. I wish that horses were as prevalent in American culture as they were in the times of War Admiral, Seabiscuit, and Secretariat.

And with that, I leave you with the amazing, live 1973 coverage of the race.

Equestrian Team Day 15

Guess who I got paired with? Yeah, Jimmy, again.

He was actually better this time. I rarely had to actually kick him rather than just heeling him. It was nice. The ring was super crowded though --- it's good that I decided to stick with splitting up the 7pm group. It's such a tiny ring and it doesn't help that there are a bunch of jumps in the middle, especially when you're trying to pass someone on the rail.

So Jimmy yesterday was a success. It was the most successful Jimmy-ride I've had so far and I'm proud of it! He didn't want to canter to the right, but we'll get there. I was actually looking forward to riding Dutchess and was bummed when I didn't get her. Oh well. Maybe next week.

If there is a next week. I might quit soon. I'm thinking of possibly buying my own jumper (or maybe even a Warmblood...forsake jumping as a whole and try dressage for a while) and moving to this absolutely gorgeous barn for lessons with said new jumper/dressage horse. It's like 15 minutes away from where I am now. Gorgeous, I tell you, gorgeous. Like the Taj Mahal.

I'm super jealous of this one girl on the team --- she has her own car and gets to go ride her horses 5 days a week, plus do lessons with us! If only, if only...maybe I should quit lessons and just start saving money for a car again, give up the semi-annual sale fund and turn it back into the F150 fund.

Madison IHSA Show - Day 2

The last day of showing was definitely better.
We had a great judge today. Our riders took high point and reserve high point riders of the day! Congrats, girls!

I, on the other hand, only got a 6th.
I have to admit, I wasn't that crushed. It was my first time competing in this discipline and I wasn't expecting much. All I wanted out of this class was to get my horse to canter without having to kick a bazillion times and you know what? I did it! The girl in the class before me, not from my school, looked like she had a hard time getting him to canter but my brother gave me a good inspiration: "Just pretend it's Brie and she stopped in the middle of the ring AGAIN." It definitely gave me the desire to show that horse who's boss.
My ride was good and I felt beautiful when we cantered, we even got the correct lead! And I never had to correct my diagonals because they were perfect today. He was just a really bouncy ride and I had a hard time sitting deep in the seat and keeping my heels down, so among trying to get my stirrups back to the balls of my feet, I stopped concentrating on keeping him cantering so he trotted...and I still never got my stirrups back where they needed to be.
I feel like as much as I would love to pat myself on the back and ride easier horses at Nell's, I need to be put on the bouncier ones that she has in order to be competitive in the next show...which is at our barn! Home advantage! I only have two lessons until that show so I need to make them count. I'm not even worried about improving my jumping right now: I need to focus on the flat that way I can point up out of there as fast as possible!

Madison ISHA Show - Day 1

This is ridiculous.
Okay so first off, I had a horrible ride. We draw our mounts out of a box and I drew probably the slowest horse ever. It makes me feel better to know that every rider did poorly on him, though. Not as bad as I did--the girl who has a weak leg because if you kick a Paso you'll die. It was a challenge to even get him to trot! It was hard getting him to canter too, even after using a crop. But apparently I didn't use my leg or my crop hard enough. Hopefully I get a better mount tomorrow. I was so disappointed, I can't even begin to tell you.

But to make matters a little bit better, the entire team didn't do so hot. Not that I know the difference, but we're "equitation" riders and the judge was a "hunter" judge. Since we all rode equitation we all placed extremely low, if at all, mostly keeping to 5th and 6th place with our senior rider taking a 4th place. As an experiment, we made our newest member and last rider, who normally rides hunter seat, ride as she naturally does. And guess what?! She won 3rd place!!

Hopefully tomorrow is a better day for all of us. I really hope that I get a better mount tomorrow. I can't stand slow horses, they're so hard to work with!